Clapping Hands to Word Stress Improves Children's L2 English Pronunciation Accuracy in a Word Imitation Task: Evidence from a Classroom Study

Lab studies have shown that hand clapping can improve L2 pronunciation in multiple ways. However, its effects in L2 classrooms remain unclear. This quasi-experimental study investigates the effects of hand clapping on improving children's L2 English pronunciation. Two groups of L1 Mandarin children participated in a two-session English training program. The experimental group (N = 28) practiced English geographic words with hand clapping to the stressed syllables and finger-to-palm tapping to the unstressed syllables, whereas the control group (N = 31) did not practice any clapping or tapping. Before and after the training, the participants imitated 14 English words spoken by native English speakers. Their imitated speech was rated for pronunciation accuracy. Results showed that only the experimental group significantly improved their pronunciation from pretest to posttest. This suggests that hand clapping is effective in classroom teaching, supporting the positive role of embodied training methods in L2 speech learning.